Wish List Rewrites

My eight year old is constantly changing her mind about what she wants for Christmas. Last year, I ended up exchanging all of her gifts right before the stores closed on December 24th. What a nightmare! Any tips on how I can avoid this problem this year?

As you know, the gimme monster can be a rather formidable adversary. That’s why I generally recommend a two-pronged attack: (1) emphasizing gift-giving (as opposed to gift-receiving); and (2) establishing some clear-cut rules about how “wish lists” work in your family.

Start out by encouraging your daughter to start thinking about what she’d like to buy for each of the people on her gift list. If you can get her excited about making or buying gifts for other people, she’ll have less time to fixate on what kind of loot she may or may not end up scoring this year. (Of course, you’ll find it easier to win this round if you limit the amount of time she spends watching TV. It’s hard enough for grownups to resist the endless parade of goodies that are marketed to us via television commercials over the holiday season, let alone an eight-year-old kid!)

Your daughter also needs to understand the difference between a wish list and an order form. When she writes down items on her wish list, there are no guarantees that any or all of those items are going to magically appear, just because she wished for them. That’s not what wish lists are all about.

And as for last minute wish list edits, you may want to get in the habit of removing wish lists from the refrigerator door when you're ready to start your shopping (or putting all family members on notice that any wish list additions posted after that time will be taken under advisement for the 2006 holiday shopping season!) That should help to take care of the problem.